


Wounded Animals

by Warpony



Series: Feral Echoes [8]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Brothers and Sisters - Freeform, Close Calls, Gen, Heart to Hearts, Past Abuse, Stuck underground, They're Really Just All Kids, homebrew sign language, past enslavement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24039034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warpony/pseuds/Warpony
Summary: The darkened tunnel under the Ashkeeper Peaks is a good a place as any to speak plainly and think deeply.* * * * *Part of a larger WIP involving a D&D Original Character and the Critical Role Mighty Nein.
Series: Feral Echoes [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1711534
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Wounded Animals

Beau huffed, folding her arms over the tops of her knees, dropping her chin onto her forearms. "I really, really hate this."

Brunnera chuckled softly, smiling slightly and flicked an ear towards her. He had to admit that the tunnel was certainly maddening. If it weren't for Caleb keeping track of the time and the days Brunnera would have lost track long ago.

The fighter mimicked Beau's pose though he kept his head up and eyes scanning the tunnel around the tiny hut. He occasionally looked up to where Frumpkin was sitting up top. Caleb was missing out on some major fey cat toe bean action.

"There had to have been a better way to do this." Beau grumbled.

"Over... over the Ashkeepers.... through front lines..." Brunnera chuffed and his ears pinned back a bit at the thought. "We had to..."

"I know! I know. That's not what I'm saying... I just really am sick of this... it's like a..."

"Cage..." Brunnera grumbled, his ear perked towards a soft sound down the tunnel. "Trap..."

Beau nodded and scratched at her arms a bit. The fighter wondered if she was starting to pick up the habit from Caleb. "It’s a direct route but how do we know its not going to come up right in the middle of Kryn war camp or something?"

Brunnera twisted to look down the tunnel, searching the dark and listening. "Shush."

"Wha-"

"Shush!" Brunnera whispered harshly, his eyes narrowing and going tense. Above them Frumpkin hunkered down, staying still.

Beau dropped her goggles over her eyes and searched the tunnel making out a strange shaped creature with multi-jointed legs crawling along the wall above them. She tensed up but Brunnera held out a hand, silently telling her to hold.

The creature scratched and crawled along, passing directly over head before moving on down the tunnel, passing out of sight then ear shot.

The fighter looked up towards Frumpkin. The familiar looked down, blinked once slowly before turning back to watching the tunnel.

Brunnera slowly folded his hand back into his lap, "Sorry..."

"What for?" Beau had settled down again, but she kept her legs stretched out in front of her, a little jittery that she hadn't been completely ready to spring up and fight.

"Givin' orders..."

"Nah, man. I didn't think anything of it... you were right anyways. Just cause I'm bored doesn't mean I should just go jumping into a fight." Beau huffed. She was still working on learning better points of self and impulse control. It was a little easier to admit mistakes and faults around the rest of the Nein than anyone in her life before.

"Pick your battles..." Brunnera rumbled softly, still listening for if the creature came back or more came along.

"Never been really great at that." Beau grumbled.

Brunnera's tail swept softly across the floor and looped around Beau to flop loosely across her calves, the blue plume of long hair tickling her ankles. "Me either..."

Beau reached down and fiddled with the plume of hair, brushing it out until it was a smooth fan of blue on the dark earth floor next to her leg. "Yeah but you didn't really have a choice did you..."

"Did you?"

She looked up at him, reluctantly pushing her goggles up onto her brow. "Well...it sorta felt like I didn't sometimes...but that’s not the same..."

"A cage is a cage..." He rumbled softly. "... kind of bars... don't matter..."

Beau stared down at his tail and her knees, thinking. At least until she felt the light bump of his elbow against her bicep. She huffed and used one hand to push him back.

Brunnera made quite a show of slowly letting his body rock away from the push, tip over then thump to the ground on his side. A small puff of dust rose up on impact.

Beau stared down at him, fighting a smile.

Brunnera huffed. "Mean."

Beau couldn't help a smile and gave him a light punch on the thigh. "Dramatic."

The firbolg fighter gave her a look and a sarcastic scoff before pushing himself up. He scooted over a bit, sitting closer but not touching Beau.

"Sometimes those battles... we're the enemy... our own..." He rumbled softly without looking at her. "Our bodies... our heads... our hearts... our own enemies..."

She gave him a slightly petulant look. "Caduceus is rubbing off on you."

The fighter hummed, "He knows that fight... better than most... better than some... some of us..."

Beau twisted to look back towards the sleeping cleric's form. "Cad? He always seems... well not always but mostly he's pretty laid back, yanno? Panics a little sometimes but he bounces back."

Brunnera looked at her, "He's a very... good actor...he hurts too... he's young still... about your age for... for our kin... I'm the baby..."

He grinned cheekily, showing his canines. Beau rolled her eyes at him but nodded in understanding, it was strange to think of it that way. Caduceus seemed so wise and worldly sometimes. But he really was just like them. Making his first real journey from home.

"Sometimes I think that's all we do... hurt... just running around like a bunch of wounded animals." She muttered.

The firbolg fighter chuffed. "Wounded animals are dangerous..."

"I can't tell if you meant that in a good way or a bad way."

"Why not both?" He shrugged, ears twitching a little.

Beau hummed again, rolling that over in her mind a few times. "Are all firbolgs full of wisdom and profound, soul searching thoughts and ideas that they just offhandedly say in regular conversation so people just think they’re all ancient forest gurus?"

"Of course." Brunnera tilted his chin up. Beau swatted his nose, making him growl softly, flash his teeth once; the way puppies snapped and fought with their litter mates.

Beau smirked, sticking out her tongue at him. Brunnera blepped his own tongue, unable to keep a smile from taking over his face; his muzzle like nose crinkling. He made a point of curling his tongue so his pointed canines showed slightly. Beau smiled but motioned him closer. The firbolg leaned forwards without hesitation and obligingly opened his mouth a bit when she asked him.

Beau gently pressed a fingertip to the tip of one such tooth and let out an indigent snort. “It’s not even sharp, Brunny. It’s dull as a river stone.”

The firbolg fighter, pulled back licking his lips a bit. “M’ trying… to be scary… be nice… mean monk…”

“You really are a giant furball.” The tension was leaching away from Beau, her muscles uncoiling and he reached to gently fluff her old sash around his neck a bit, better covering the collar. Sometimes it was too easy to forget that he even had the horrible thing around his neck. The thought turned her stomach a little. Brunnera probably never forgot it was there. “You know you don’t have to hide that thing around any of us. We’d never think anything bad about you for it or pity you or any other shitty stuff like that.”

He lifted a hand to lightly brush the sash. "I know... just... better this way... I can pretend it... it never happened..."

Beau turned her head to set her cheek on her forearms. "Tell me that story."

"What story?"

"The one where it never happened." She encouraged. 

Brunnera shook his head, ears pinning back a bit. "Can't talk... take to long..." 

"I don't care about that shit, Brunny. None of us do."

"I do." He ducked his head shamefully, it had barely come out in a whisper. He could feel words already dying in his throat.

"You know there's a language made of hand signs for people that can't hear or talk?" She said bluntly. 

He looked over towards her, one ear perked up in interest. 

"There was a monk at the Valley Archive like that. Couldn't talk. He used it to communicate." Beau was careful not to smile at the way Brunnera's ears were both at attention and the plumed end of his tail was thumping a bit on the ground next to her leg. "We're probably not gonna get back to Zadash any time soon. Or who knows if that guy was still there. But whats stopping us from making up our own? And we can make it all up together so we'll all learn it at the same time?"

Brunnera cocked his head, thinking. 

"And it doesn't matter if no one else knows it. We can translate for you. Or if we care we can teach them, too." Beau lifted her head, tapping a toe on the earth in time with his tail. 

He chuffed softly. 

"Cause you're smart, man. You not being able to talk fluidly isn't because you're dumb. You're really fucking smart. I've seen you think through a problem in a second that would take alot of people fucking hours. And you're quick. And you got serious strategy chops. That fight a little while back with the leucrotta thing? There's no way in hell we coulda done that without you plugging us all into a plan, and actually making us stick to it, a couple of us would probably be dead. Have you figured out how hard it is to get this group to stick to a plan? You did that. And the stories you tell are fucking amazing. I can't even figure out how you come up with all that stuff. So you aren't dumb."

He'd pinned his ears and looked away, hands fiddling in his lap, his tail unconsciously wrapped around Beau's ankle tightly. His throat bobbed as if he wanted to talk but couldn't work the sound up and out. All signs he was really thinking hard.

Beau was quiet, waiting for him to work through the jumble of thoughts she'd pushed on him all at once. She didn't have to wait to long. He huffed. 

"Are all monks...so full... of wisdom... and soul searching thoughts?" He rasped out slowly, grinding a few words between his teeth to force them out.

"Nope. Thats just me." She smirked. "So c'mon. What's the first word of our new all sign language? The faster we figure it out the faster you won't have any excuses for not telling us stories and stuff."

Brunnera hesitated then slowly lifted his arms up. He made fists with both hands then brought them upright in front of him, pressing the sides of his forearms together from his elbows to his fists, the backs of his fists facing out in front of him. As if he was shielding himself. 

Beau crossed her legs under herself and mimicked the sign. Two fists, arms upright and pressed together in front of her. "Okay. So that's the first sign. What's it mean?"

The fighter gave her a small smile. " _Beau_."

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah. According to the character info Caduceus is between eighty to a hundred years old. Which puts him early to mid twenties for human equivalent. Brunnera is about sixty years old so he's equivalently late teens to early twenties. But yanno being a slave gladiator has a way of aging a fella... 
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


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